Museveni directs Minister Anite to Audit UTL

President Museveni has ordered the Minister of State for Privatisation and Investment Evelyn Anite to institute an audit into the activities of Uganda Telecom Limited.

In a letter dated July 16, 2019, Museveni said he had heard of “some allegations” within UTL but noted that the audit would either confirm or dismiss them.

“This is to direct you to institute an audit in the activities that are going on in Uganda Telecommunication Limited,”Museveni said in the letter.

The company was co-owned between the governments of Uganda and Libya, but the arrangement shattered following the toppling of then Libyan President, Muammar Gaddafi.

UTL has had a turbulent recent past, which forced Parliament to form a Select Committee that conducted a probe and recommended government to capitalise the firm and offer more shares to a financially capable company and also set aside the then administrator.

In April 2017, when faced by a pool of creditors who were jostling to liquidate UTL’s assets, government decided to put the company under receivership by the Registrar General, Bemanya Twebaze.

By putting the company under receivership, government insulated it from liquidation by incensed creditors and a search for new administrators who would buy and inherit the company’s debts was initiated.

Taleology Holdings, a Nigerian based telecom firm took over, but Anite said it failed to manage the company’s debt and accounts, and technically agreed to vacate.

Last year, cabinet extended UTL’s operational licence for 20 more years but Uganda Communications Commission Executive Director, Godfrey Mutabazi later wrote to the company’s administrator noting that they may not renew the UTL licence for failure tom meet some requirements under the law.

Mutabazi said UTL owes UCC shs49.8billion in pre-administration debt and shs10.2billion as part of the administration on top of not complying with the requirement of installation of an Intelligence Network Monitoring System (INMS) so as to allow state agencies monitor telephone calls for security purposes.

Minister Anite last month told parliament that government had lost control of UTL adding that there is no record of the company’s revenue and disbursements.

“We do not know the status of the company; I want to say that technically, we have lost the company,” she told MPs during the plenary sitting on Thursday, 20 June 2019.

Anite revealed that the Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija, had written to the Auditor General asking for an audit on UTL, but the former declined saying there was an ongoing court action which stops his office from conducting the audit.

Last month, Anite wrote to the Attorney General asking him to apply to court to have Bemanya removed as the administrator for Uganda Telecom Limited for failure in his duties and that all concerned parties had lost confidence in him.

However, the deputy Attorney General, Mwesigwa Rukutana blasted Anite saying she has no supervisory powers over the UTL administrator.